In Search Of: Storage Ideas for CDs

[kap'n krunch]

most of you know I hate CD/DVD/BD jewel boxes with a passion, ever since the beginning.. they break , they take a lot of space and they are a pain in the royal ass. I take the disc out and all of the inserts and put them in a paper CD sized envelope, and you would not believe how much space I save and how easy it is to find a disc. I have only 3 categories, Surround, normal CDs and movies, I have about 5 of these babies and that's it!

Obviously the ones like the Tull ones still keep their books but thankfully those are the minority...
I know it is not very elegant but I do not like to "show off" my collection and it makes moving way easier!

 

[SneakmasterG]

How do you sort, organize and find anything there? Or is it more for semi-permanent storage while listening to ripped files? A friend of mine uses similar boxes and stores without jewel cases to save even more space, but he almost never takes the CDs out.

I've ripped all my discs and only play them back from my network. I couldn't imagine going back to playing physical discs. At least the digital variety.

 

[mandrix]

All my surround DVD/DVDA/DTS-CD/BD/SACD/ are racked in 3 six foot tall bookshelf units, and several smaller ones.

The DVD's are grouped together, the DVDA/DTS-CD/SACD are sorted alphabetically and placed mixed in alphabetical order on the shelves. (Almost entirely surround)
There is further sorting of Quadio's and Vocallion SACD's.
The BD's are grouped in their own space.
Old Quad rips are racked together.
I have a small rack for "Ambient" such as the Pete Namlook series, etc.
(I don't collect/buy movies save for live surround)

All of these are ripped. I have backups on HDD's, and backups of backups extending across 2 pc's and archive HDD's boxed up. My primary playback device is the pc, even though I have 5 disc players.

All my CD's are in boxes distributed about the house. I seldom have use for them, but as the boxes are labeled I can find what I'm looking for easily enough.

Regardless, if you have hundreds or even thousands of discs, you have to decide for yourself what works for you in terms of storage in your home. I have mine. I hope the OP can find something that suits him, because storage takes on a life of it's own after your collection gets huge.

Don't much care what is legal or not, and I won't get into that conversation. I have thousands of dollars expended over many years and I will do as I see fit. After I die someone can trash it all or give it away...but there's a plan for that, too, if followed after I'm gone.

 

[newslane]

Nice to have a group where we can share these small obsessions!

When I get a new item, I add a letter and a number to a small piece of removable tape on the front of it, and then I enter that into a spreadsheet. In that way I can always find it, and I can also scan the spreadsheet to find things to listen to. I have attached a snip of the latest items I collected (you will recognize several of these).

The code at the end notes that I have listened to it closely and it documents my initial impressions. Rated 1-3, I note: How much I liked it / my impression of the quality of the recording / how it sounds in sonic holography. So 3/3/3 would be an overall excellent recording.

 

[nikomen]

I have over 4000 CD's that are alphabetical by artist name, and then by date within the artist. Same for vinyl albums and 45's, 8-tracks, cassettes. DVD and BD box sets, etc.

As far as owning, collecting and retaining your physical media vs. all ripped to hard drives, which I do, they do fail, even multiple can fail and they won't live forever. I've even backed up most of my multichannel FLACs to flash drives as well as they don't have a system that is as prone to mechanical failure.

The other reason that I would never get rid of my physical media, is the rare and out-of-prints that exist in all medium, from vinyl albums that I've had to rip, because the songs were never made on CD or any other digital medium, or Quad reels that have the same issue but now exist only in stereo, and can't be streamed, unless it's so popular that a current company, like Apple can get a studio to create an Atmos version. Yes, I love that Rhino is releasing Quads, Quadio's, BD's of quads, now with 5.1 and even Atmos remixes on blue-ray, but I'm still waiting to see if they will ever treat my favorite JT Quad R2R, Gorilla to that kind treatment. If not, then my favorite quad album will be lost to time. Even Atmos multichannel remixes, as we've seen, it may only be available for a limited time like from Apple, and they don't make a physical BD of that Atmos mix. To top it off, there are so many songs on even digital medium, mostly CD's from back when the studios were trying to make almost everything, even rare's onto CD, for the collectors, where it's not in Spotify's, Apple Music or any other streaming service's interest to have EVERY song from EVERY album, even since the advent in the 80's of digital medium like CD's as it takes up server space that isn't often or ever accessed. For example, I have a couple of David Bryon CD's, the lead singer from Uriah Heap back in the 70's, which by the way, aren't very good, that I would dare anyone to use their streaming service to find even one track from those albums available today from a streaming service. Somebody though, likes those songs, and they will get lost in time without a physical medium exsiting.

 

[Rstaylor]

I have over 4000 CD's that are alphabetical by artist name, and then by date within the artist. Same for vinyl albums and 45's, 8-tracks, cassettes. DVD and BD box sets, etc.

As far as owning, collecting and retaining your physical media vs. all ripped to hard drives, which I do, they do fail, even multiple can fail and they won't live forever. I've even backed up most of my multichannel FLACs to flash drives as well as they don't have a system that is as prone to mechanical failure.

The other reason that I would never get rid of my physical media, is the rare and out-of-prints that exist in all medium, from vinyl albums that I've had to rip, because the songs were never made on CD or any other digital medium, or Quad reels that have the same issue but now exist only in stereo, and can't be streamed, unless it's so popular that a current company, like Apple can get a studio to create an Atmos version. Yes, I love that Rhino is releasing Quads, Quadio's, BD's of quads, now with 5.1 and even Atmos remixes on blue-ray, but I'm still waiting to see if they will ever treat my favorite JT Quad R2R, Gorilla to that kind treatment. If not, then my favorite quad album will be lost to time. Even Atmos multichannel remixes, as we've seen, it may only be available for a limited time like from Apple, and they don't make a physical BD of that Atmos mix. To top it off, there are so many songs on even digital medium, mostly CD's from back when the studios were trying to make almost everything, even rare's onto CD, for the collectors, where it's not in Spotify's, Apple Music or any other streaming service's interest to have EVERY song from EVERY album, even since the advent in the 80's of digital medium like CD's as it takes up server space that isn't often or ever accessed. For example, I have a couple of David Bryon CD's, the lead singer from Uriah Heap back in the 70's, which by the way, aren't very good, that I would dare anyone to use their streaming service to find even one track from those albums available today from a streaming service. Somebody though, likes those songs, and they will get lost in time without a physical medium exsiting.
View attachment 109165View attachment 109166View attachment 109167View attachment 109168View attachment 109169View attachment 109170

You have a VERY impressive Beatles collection! I'm normally not the envious type, but you forced me to make an exception.

 

[stoopid]

As far as owning, collecting and retaining your physical media vs. all ripped to hard drives, which I do, they do fail, even multiple can fail and they won't live forever. I've even backed up most of my multichannel FLACs to flash drives as well as they don't have a system that is as prone to mechanical failure.

Been a topic on this forum before. There's a blind spot in many enthusiast's thinking regarding the longevity of magnetic media, mostly because they have not personally experienced failures in the various forms magnetic media are subject.

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...mmendations-not-sony.35206/page-3#post-743132

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Been a topic on this forum before. There's a blind spot in many enthusiast's thinking regarding the longevity of magnetic media, mostly because they have not personally experienced failures in the various forms magnetic media are subject.

Granted. I have completely replaced my storage media more than once over the past 2 decades even though I maintain multiple copies. I think of them as automobile tires which are subject to cataclysmic failures and must be monitored for signs of impending problems. So far, so good.

 

[nikomen]

Been a topic on this forum before. There's a blind spot in many enthusiast's thinking regarding the longevity of magnetic media, mostly because they have not personally experienced failures in the various forms magnetic media are subject.

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...mmendations-not-sony.35206/page-3#post-743132

That statement is absolutely true, my friend, but so far, you can still play Edison tubes on the oldest style Victrola made, and the sound is still there. One thing I’m not sure of, though, is the digital versions of albums that have been created on CD, is it all 4000+ of my CDs, will they still be playable 100 years from now, though I am betting that they are, and hence the reason that physical CDs, as well as DVD-A, SACD, BD’s. So although I’m not against backing up all of our media to drives, and or the cloud, maintaining and collecting their physical digitized versions, i.e. CD’s etc. physical digitized version of music produced prior to the current model with no physical media is essential for the rarest of music to have a life beyond the next 20, 50, 100+ years, and in theory for all time.

 

[stoopid]

Granted. I have completely replaced my storage media more than once over the past 2 decades even though I maintain multiple copies. I think of them as automobile tires which are subject to cataclysmic failures and must be monitored for signs of impending problems. So far, so good.

Yes, as I posted in that other topic from several months ago -- the strategy is to rotate out magnetic media every 5-10 years, BEFORE they fail/start degrading. The timeline for burned optical media (consumer grade) is a little longer, around 10 years, and for pressed commercial grade 10 to possibly 50+ years depending on exact media type and other variables.

The point is that most/many magnetic media users do not do this, either willing to risk running things to the bitter end or out of lack of understanding/knowing the timeline limitations. Hopefully this being posted enough times will get them to inquire into this reality, verify using other online trusted and scientifically rigorous sources, and implement a strategy before they pay the ultimate price for 'convenience'.

 

[nikomen]

You have a VERY impressive Beatles collection! I'm normally not the envious type, but you forced me to make an exception.

 

[nikomen]

Yes, as I posted in that other topic from several months ago -- the strategy is to rotate out magnetic media every 5-10 years, BEFORE they fail/start degrading. The timeline for burned optical media (consumer grade) is a little longer, around 10 years, and for pressed commercial grade 10 to possibly 50+ years depending on exact media type and other variables.

The point is that most/many magnetic media users do not do this, either willing to risk running things to the bitter end or out of lack of understanding/knowing the timeline limitations. Hopefully this being posted enough times will get them to inquire into this reality, verify using other online trusted and scientifically rigorous sources, and implement a strategy before they pay the ultimate price for 'convenience'.

BTW, all of my consumer grade CDs from back in the 80s still play like they did when I bought them, so I’m not really sure what the true life expectancy of CDs are?

 

[Eclectic]

You have a VERY impressive Beatles collection! I'm normally not the envious type, but you forced me to make an exception.

Yes indeed! You don't see the butcher cover very often. Also I dig your groovy collection of vintage music playing hardware. Do you have a Panapet?

 

[stoopid]

BTW, all of my consumer grade CDs from back in the 80s still play like they did when I bought them, so I’m not really sure what the true life expectancy of CDs are?

We're living history as they say, on a long enough timeline we'll find out.

I only need the discs in my collection to last my lifetime. If I live long enough for them to start rotting/degrading, that might be a good thing (depending on how one views aging).

 

[nikomen]

Yes indeed! You don't see the butcher cover very often. Also I dig your groovy collection of vintage music playing hardware. Do you have a Panapet?
View attachment 109182

I saw it back in the day, but no I don't have one. This one looks nice and clean. I also had the Radio Shack AM radio that attached to your bike's handle bars.

 

[mandrix]

Yes, as I posted in that other topic from several months ago -- the strategy is to rotate out magnetic media every 5-10 years, BEFORE they fail/start degrading. The timeline for burned optical media (consumer grade) is a little longer, around 10 years, and for pressed commercial grade 10 to possibly 50+ years depending on exact media type and other variables.

The point is that most/many magnetic media users do not do this, either willing to risk running things to the bitter end or out of lack of understanding/knowing the timeline limitations. Hopefully this being posted enough times will get them to inquire into this reality, verify using other online trusted and scientifically rigorous sources, and implement a strategy before they pay the ultimate price for 'convenience'.

Having lost almost my entire quad collection years ago, when hard drives on two different pc's expired within a week or two, I know well what you're saying. This was the only time I lost anything due to drive failures since that I know of.
Not only do I keep copies of my surround collection on multiple drives, but also a single copy on a separate pc. (the second pc will only handle 8 drives)
I have ripped surround BD's in smaller drives I've retired over the years, boxed up and stored in the pc/audio room.
I do regular backups of my OS drive, and my Documents drive, and keep an OS drive backup on a portable drive.

If it all goes to hell, I have racks and racks of discs to listen to, and 5 disc players. Life is good.